My granddaughter, Emelia, will be two in March and she loves Peter Rabbit. Well, what child doesn't? So, I thought I'd put my artistic talents to work to create a very personal gift that, hopefully, will last for years.

I find buying birthday gifts for children difficult because they grow out of them so quickly. I'm therefore optimistic that gifting a thoughtful piece of art, created by me, might be better aporeciated and certainly have a longer shelf life! Anyway, here's the painting, yet to be finished but I thought I'd share the process with you.

I won't bore you with every detail of how I painted this piece but thought you might find it interesting to know how it started.

I enjoy blending acrylic paints and the more I do it the better each painting seems to be. So, after applying a simple white base coat I literally dab on spots of paint ready to be brushed into the canvas. Now, in case you thought this was simple think again. Blending needs to be done with the right brush, just the right amount of water and the technique is the key. You can't just brush the paint around randomly! I start from the centre and work across and down and then the same for the top. The brush strokes need to be fast and even to avoid creating lines or break marks. Anyway, this is what it started out as: